Dear Friends, for centuries and across many cultures the insight of Indra’s net has symbolized deeper levels of connectivity to all our relations.

Thich Nhat Hanh says,

“This is a net made of jewels, and in each jewel you see reflected all the other jewels. Looking into the one you see the all. Suppose you build a hall made of mirrors, and then you enter holding a candle. Looking into a mirror you see you and the candle, and when you turn around you see that each mirror reflects you and the candle in the mirror too. You just need to look into one mirror to see all the reflections of you and the candle. Countless yous and countless candles are reflected in just one mirror.” From A Dharma Talk on The Power of Visualization, June 2004

In September and October there is a lot happening at The Lotus Institute. Each activity is a reflection of our practice of going deep, deeper and deeper still into both individual and collective healing, transformation and liberation. From this profound recognition of interconnectedness we see that we live in intersectionality with all people and earthlings; without one the other is not possible. Here are some opportunities to join us in practice on the journey of awakening.

Southern California- Indra’s Net

Indra’s Net:

The Wisdom of All Relations

Explore your connectivity to all relations. We will explore our relationship to the world through the prism of race. We will explore our relationship to ourselves as precious individuals and explore our relationships with close connections in our lives. We will endeavor to touch and be touched by the ground of well-being. We will nourish our capacities to go deeper in our healing, transformation and liberation.

Philadelphia, PA- Ancestry in Progress

Friday October 25th - Sunday October 27th, 2019

Our first retreat in a very long time in Philadelphia, nestled in the woods of the largest urban park system in the country! In addition to the fall theme of connecting to our ancestors and continuing their lineage, this retreat will focus on centering Black, Indigenous and other People of Color, gender expansive/fluid folx, LGBTQIA, youth practitioners 18 and over, community organizers and others who are typically marginalized in wellness/spiritual circles. Because of this we are holding the majority of spaces for folx in these intersections.

This talk describes the classic energies of deconstruction present in our moment of history. It raises the question of how to acknowledge their presence in ourselves and our societies, and offers an invitation to practice with powerful understanding and fierce love in both the deconstruction and reconstruction energies within the sacred intersections between self and society.

Note: This summit is one of a handful that Larry and Peggy have participated in this year. The online summit model is actually a little different than The Lotus Institute model. For online summits typically they are free to listen to live (and within 24-48hrs of the launch of the talk) and then after you can pay a package fee to the summit for lifetime access to all of the talks. This, and all summits we mention in our newsletter, are not put on by Lotus, rather they are events we’ve agreed to participate in.

A NOTE ABOUT PATREON

Since the launch of our Patreon page in August 2018 we’ve gained 68 patrons who make it possible for us to do all sorts of things, including providing scholarships to retreats like the ones mentioned in this email. Our next goal of 75 patrons will help us secure funding for the tech/organizational support to continue the work we’ve started. Even $1 /month helps! If you want to read our goals in more detail and/or become a part of our Patreon community that makes this work sustainable, become a patron here. AND THANK YOU to all of the existing patrons who make our work possible!